Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Schlosberg.
Lisa, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I always thought of myself as the “strong one” growing up. I was proud of my ultra-independence from a young age; my ability to “keep it together” when things were tough, to “power through” the difficult times, and to “not need anything from anyone” – especially when I was five years old and my 5-month-old sister died. While my family attempted to cope with the trauma, I got a lot of practice pretending I was “fine.” I “didn’t need to think or talk about it” because what good would that do?
I spent the next 13 years living this way. If there were thoughts or feelings — about anything or anyone — that I didn’t like or want to feel, I avoided and distracted and pretended my way out of them. There’s no use in feeling feelings. Crying is for suckers. Therapy is dumb.
I didn’t think my eating habits or “morbid obesity” had anything to do with it. If you asked me, I just ate however much I wanted, of whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it. I didn’t understand why I was being forced to go to Weight Watchers at nine years old, why I had to see so many specialists and nutritionists, or why my doctors and parents couldn’t just leave me alone about my “weight issue.” I definitely did not understand why I had to start seeing a therapist when I started high school. Whenever she gently brought up the connection between my 300-pound body and my complete lack of emotional awareness, I would kindly let her know she had no idea what she was talking about and we could move on to *any* other topic now, thank you very much.
I took a gap year to travel after graduating high school in 3 years, and, with no one and nothing distracting me from myself anymore, decided once and for all that I would attempt weight loss (for real this time). I began with the prepackaged meals from Jenny Craig and eventually took the process into my own hands, rigidly following the instructions I received my entire childhood: eat less, exercise more. During my sophomore year of college and while living in my sorority house, I rapidly lost 150 pounds. And at the time, I really thought that would be the end of the story.
I was just ten pounds shy of my “goal weight” when I hit a plateau and eventually reached out to a nutritionist for help with the last few pounds. She caught what four doctors had missed: the reason I felt unstable and physically unwell was because my body was now in “starvation mode” as a result of severe malnourishment. Unbeknownst to me, my diet had grown dangerously extreme and my lifestyle became destructive. My instructions were now the opposite: eat more, exercise less.
With weekly support from my nutritionist AND my therapist, I slowly released the “eating disorder tendencies” that helped me feel safe and in control of my body and life. I restored my body back to a healthy place AND learned how to feel and manage the incredible emotional upheaval that came with the process of healing my relationship with food. In order for me to give up the coping mechanisms of overeating/obesity as well as dieting/weight loss, I had to admit my vulnerability and make space in my life for feelings, emotions, and embodying my messy, complicated, multidimensional, human truth (that is sometimes uncomfortable, uncontrollable, and inconvenient). It was not the journey I expected, and it has been the ride of a lifetime.
I have since become a Certified Personal Trainer (2015), an Integrative Nutrition Holistic Health Coach (2017), a Licenced Master of Social Work (2019), and Registered Yoga Instructor (2020). I am the Founder & CEO of Out of the Cave, LLC., a health coaching business that helps emotional eaters (or anyone struggling with “disordered eating”) heal their relationship with food, let go of dieting & diet culture, and come back to mind-body-soul balance and health. I use a Trauma-Informed and mind-body approach to establishing overall wellness and am passionate about helping people use their relationship/struggle with food as a pathway back to themselves.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Far from it. Childhood “obesity” was a struggle for me in itself, mentally/emotionally as well as physically and socially. It wasn’t easy growing up twice the size as my peers, and it affected nearly every single aspect of my life and development.
Then the struggles were primarily physical: the second half of my weight loss journey was riddled with hair loss, fatigue, insomnia, constipation, irritability, intolerance to the cold (being freezing constantly), extreme anxiety/fear around food & my body, and eventually, the loss of my menstrual cycle.
Many of those symptoms were healed as I began to eat more and exercise less and my body stabilized in health/weight. At that point, I became almost completely overcome by my emotions. I went through withdrawal the way any recovering addict does, and I was now, all of a sudden and to my complete surprise, an incredibly “sensitive” person. Learning how to tell the truth about my feelings and cope with my life stressors in healthy ways was the real massive transformation for me.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Out of the Cave, LLC. is a health coaching business dedicated to serving anyone who struggles with a “disordered” relationship with food. This includes but is not limited to: overeating, under-eating, mindless eating, emotional eating, stress eating, compulsive/addictive eating, as well as compulsive/addictive dieting. At Out of the Cave, we understand these eating habits to be symptoms of deeper bio-psycho-social root causes, so we take a holistic, trauma-informed, and mind-body approach to helping people reconnect with themselves. In many ways, our approach flips the mainstream eating disorder treatment model on its head: rather than framing the “food issue” as a problem that needs to be solved, we see it as an attempt at a solution that is worth exploring.
Out of the Cave was created to help people from a place of love, compassion, and empathy. We meet the client where they are and support them in embodying more safety, peace, freedom, and power in their lives. Independent from both diet and anti-diet culture, our intention is to help guide people back home to themselves and their body’s internal wisdom. We believe each person is the expert on themselves and that every individual has the power to heal their mind-body-soul system. We are passionate about assisting people in taking their power back from the struggle around food to live the fulfilling and vibrant life they desire and deserve. For us, healing the relationship with food and body image is the beginning, rather than the end, of a lifelong journey of self-love, self-care, and self-awareness.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
We, humans, are love. I know that might sound a little cliché, but it’s important — especially in the world of emotional eating & body image, where people are so often steeped in unnecessary shame, guilt, fear, embarrassment, and regret. Our brain is designed to protect us and our body is wired to thrive; using food as a means of emotional regulation is normal, human, valid, and appropriate. Despite what many of us have been taught to believe, there is nothing wrong with us. We are not defective or broken and we don’t need to be fixed. We need to be authentically seen, heard, validated, and loved as our true selves. When we feel safe to exist and live in our truth, our mind-body-soul system can function without relying on food, eating, dieting, and weight loss as means of coping. The most important thing for our healing journey is to move out of fear and self-loathing and into love and self-compassion. We are all worthy of this regardless of weight, shape, size, appearance, and/or eating habits.
Pricing:
- $50/month – monthly membership
- Varying payment plans for 14-week group coaching program. please apply here
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.outofthecave.health/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisa.schlosberg/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.schlosberg
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/lees325
- Other: https://anchor.fm/lisa-schlosberg
Image Credits
(Some) of those pictures were done by Alyssa Teuton (63 Moons Photography)
